Ask three providers what social media management costs and you can end up with three quotes that are hard to compare at all, not because anyone is overcharging, but because each of them is quoting a different job. One is quoting eight scheduled posts. One is quoting a monthly photo shoot, daily replies and an ad budget. One is quoting a strategy deck.
So before any number, here is what the cost of social media management in Canada is actually made of, the questions that make quotes comparable, and what a business can sensibly do itself.
What you are really paying for: time
The posts are the visible part. The cost is in everything around them:
Planning. Deciding what to post and when, around your seasons, launches and quiet months.
Making. Photos, short videos, captions and graphics. Original video on location is the most time-hungry part of the whole job.
Publishing. Scheduling, formatting for each platform, checking it went out.
Community management. Replying to comments and messages, which is where most of the real customer contact happens.
Reporting. What worked, what did not, what changes next month.
Ads, if any. A separate job with a separate budget. Ad spend is always on top of the management fee.
When two quotes differ a lot, it is usually because one includes making and community management and the other does not.
The questions that make quotes comparable
Send these to everyone who quotes, and line the answers up side by side:
How many posts a month, on which platforms?
Who creates the photos and video, and is anyone coming on site?
Are comments and messages answered, and how quickly? Evenings and weekends?
Are stories or short videos included, or only feed posts?
Are ads included, and is the ad spend separate?
How many rounds of approval do I get before something goes out?
What does the monthly report show?
What is the minimum term and the notice period, and who owns the accounts if we stop?
That last one matters more than it looks. The accounts should be in your business's name, with the provider added as a person who can manage them, never the other way round.
What pushes the price up or down
Original content versus your own material. Working from photos you already take is far cheaper than a monthly shoot.
Number of platforms. Each one has its own formats and its own audience. Two done well beats four done thinly.
How fast replies need to be. Same-day replies, seven days a week, is a staffing commitment.
Your industry's rules. Regulated professions, such as clinics, have rules about testimonials and claims that slow every post down.
Whether strategy is included, or you are buying publishing only.
Term. Some providers price lower in exchange for a long minimum. Read what you are giving up.
Mine, for reference
I publish my prices rather than quoting them on a call. Social media management is an add-on at $500 a month for eight posts across two platforms, stacked on top of one of my monthly plans rather than sold on its own, with no annual contract and two months' notice to stop. Ads management is a separate add-on, and any ad spend is billed straight to your own account. If that scope fits what you need, what the social media work includes is written out.
Why I am not quoting "the going rate"
Search for social media pricing and you will find plenty of tables. Most of the ones I found are written by social media tool companies, priced for the United States, and say nothing about who they surveyed or when. I would rather give you the questions above than a Canadian range I cannot stand behind. Get three quotes, ask all eight questions, and you will have a more useful range than any article can give you.
What you can realistically do yourself
A lot of social media for a small business is consistency rather than craft, and consistency is something an owner can do:
Post on one platform, on a fixed rhythm, rather than everywhere occasionally.
Reply to every comment and message. This is the part customers notice most.
Use what you already have: the work, the team, the space, the before and after (where your industry allows it).
Batch it. An hour once a week to write and schedule beats ten minutes every day.
What is genuinely hard to do yourself is the creative consistency over months, short video, and ads. That is usually where paying someone starts to make sense.
What to expect at a small following
Be realistic here. At a small following, your posts mostly reach people who already know you. That is not nothing: customers check your profile before they visit, call or book, and an active, current profile tells them you are open and real. But organic social on its own rarely fills a calendar for a business starting from a few hundred followers, so judge it by the enquiries and messages it produces, not by the follower count.
A note on direct messages and CASL
Public posts are generally outside Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), but the CRTC says messages sent through a closed, two-way direct messaging system on social media count as messages to an electronic address (sourced from the CRTC). So a promotional DM sent to people who have not agreed to hear from you is treated much like a promotional email, and needs consent, identification and a way to opt out. Replying to someone who messaged you first is a different situation. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
Is it worth paying for?
It depends on what else the money could do. If your Google Business Profile and website are not in shape yet, they usually come first, because that is where people go when they are ready to buy. What you should get for $1,000 a month in marketing and how to split a $2,000 monthly budget show where social fits at two common budgets.
So which of those eight questions could your current quote actually answer?